“J.C. Penney has a lot of levers they can pull to get the customers back," Bill Miller gleefully told a Schwab conference in November as he bought JCP bonds. Spreads on those bonds have risen over 200bps since then. However, it was the embattled Legg Mason guru's appearance on CNBC in mid-December that sparked re-exuberance as everyone jumped on his "undervalued" bandwagon and lifted the stock into year-end. Today, back under $6, JCPenney is once again at fresh 33 year lows. Those that followed Miller are down over 25% on their 'investment'.

But he's an expert, and experts are never wrong! Experts also predict how the economy will do, and they've been saying how the recovery keeps picking up steam, so that must also be true. They wouldn't lie to us because they're just a bunch of egotistical numbnuts, would they?

When I bought the Goldman offering a couple cents off the low I told myself I would hold that stock till I retire; in standard form I scalped out of it nearly as soon as I was up money because fuck tying up the margin to hold stock.

jcp was absolutely trashed when the "genius" Ron Johnson was given his $54 million compensation to make over jcp into a mini Nordstrom with strong Apple overlay. His first genius move was to scream "no coupons" and allow returns with absolutely no proof whatsoever the item was purchased at jcp. Thieves, hoodlums, drug addicts, hookers and pimps heard his siren call. He proceeded to gut the employee rolls and make do with less, leaving maybe one employee to maintain the department and make sales. Cash registers were obsolete so in comes the ipad. customers thought it was bizarre. Sales were eliminated and pricing strategies routinely "tweaked". It was a complete and utter disaster. Howard Davidowitz called it accurately but Wall Street was enamored of Ron's song and dance. There was so much incongruity between their traditional customer (grandma, working class stiffs) and what Ron wanted (hip, eurotrash music and clothing). He didn't beta test anything, just rolled out mistake after mistake. I could write a book

Took me all of 15 seconds to look at the weekly chart to see that the signal was given in freakin' MAY OF 2012 to quite simply stay the fuck away from this piece of shit. Of course this genius tells the idiots on the cheerleading station to pile in based on what he "thinks" and "feels" will happen.

My comment was more specific to getting long for beyond a trade. There have been some pops but man I don't trust turds like this even if you enter at the right time at any point BOOM they announce something that confirms the overall trend down and their status as a piece of shit.

I remember when my mom gave me my first pair of new J.C.Penney jeans. I was so proud. then my Auntie gave me a Hopalong Cassidy belt with a real metal belt buckle; I was a happy little cowboy. We were a working class family; it didn't take much to make me happy.

I remember whem my mom took me to JC Penney in the late 1970s. We were both grossed out, the place was so dingy and the quality was so bad. We were an aspirational upper middle class (by education; not by net worth alas) family; it took a lot to make us happy.

At this point my mom is delighted to shop at JCP if she can get a savvy friend to figure out the bestest coupons; I would shop there with coupons if there were one nearby, and if their stuff were available even more cheaply at Goodwill that would be swell too. Our net worth has improved, for some reason, but we're not so aspirational.

The truth is one vague positive report and 2 hedge fund mgrs Kyle Bass and Dan Loeb drove the stock from 6 to 10. Once they got out all that was left were the real numbers....and they haven't improved except what is being gained by closing the most unprofitable locations